Republican Attacks on Endangered Species Up 600 Percent Per YearAn Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

The increased pace of attacks on endangered species
corresponds to a massive increase in campaign contributions from the oil and
gas industry, big agriculture and other industries that oppose endangered
species protections.

Over the past five years, Republicans in Congress have
launched 164 attacks on the Endangered Species Act — a 600 percent increase
in the rate of annual attacks over the previous 15 years, according to a new
analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The report, Politics of Extinction, also identifies five Republicans
responsible for nearly a quarter of legislative attacks who have received
millions of dollars in campaign contributions from special interests opposed
to Endangered Species Act protections: Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Sen.
Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah).

“We’re witnessing a war on the Endangered Species Act unlike anything
we’ve seen before,” said Jamie Pang, an endangered species campaigner with
the Center. “If it’s allowed to succeed, this Republican assault will
dismantle the world’s most effective law for protecting endangered wildlife
and put scores of species on the path to extinction.”

The Center reviewed congressional and legislative records over the past
20 years. Among the findings:

There have been 164 legislative attacks on endangered species since 2011
or an average of 33 attacks per year.

By contrast, from 1996-2010 there were only 69 attacks for an average of
five per year.

So far in 2015, there have already been 66 legislative attacks on endangered
species, ranging from bills to strip endangered species protections from
gray wolves, American burying beetles and other species to bills to weaken
the ability of citizens to go to court in defense of species.

All the bills attacking endangered species this year, and 93 percent of
those over the past 20 years, have been sponsored by Republicans.

The increased pace of attacks on endangered species corresponds to a massive
increase in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, big
agriculture and other industries that oppose endangered species protections.
Between 2004 and 2014, for example, campaign contributions from the oil and
gas industry increased from roughly $10 million to more than $25 million,
according to OpenSecrets.org.

“It's no coincidence that the species that are most targeted, from the
gray wolf to the sage grouse to the lesser prairie chicken, are those that
the oil and gas industry and big agriculture view as standing in the way of
their bottom line,” said Pang.

Many of the attacks on endangered species have come as riders on
must-pass spending bills, including three that have passed so far. These
include a 2011 rider that stripped protection from wolves in Montana and
Idaho; a 2014 rider allowing trophy hunting and importation of
scimitar-horned oryx, addax and Dama gazelle from Africa; and another 2014
rider that prohibited the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from expending any
resources to protect sage grouse.

Overall 54 of the 164 attacks since 2011 have been riders, compared to
just two between 1996 and 2010. These riders have no relevance to the
spending priorities of Congress, but are added through secretive,
closed-door processes as a means to pass controversial provisions that would
otherwise not pass as stand-alone bills.

Among the slate of legislative threats that species currently face is a
congressional rider in the 2016 Department of the Interior appropriations
bill that would strip protections from gray wolves across most of the
country. Another rider would delay protection of sage grouse.

An opinion poll released earlier this month shows that more than 90
percent of Americans support the Endangered Species Act.

“Republicans in Congress have essentially taken life-and-death decisions
for species away from expert scientists for the benefit of special interests
that have no interest in saving species,” said Pang. “That’s not what the
American public wants, and it’s certainly not what species at the brink of
extinction need.”

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